Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh has sadly passed away at the age of 60
The creator of the “Yu-Gi-Oh” comic book series, Takahashi Kazuki, a Japanese manga artist, was discovered dead on Wednesday. He was 60. According to Okinawa Province’s Nago, public broadcaster NHK, Takahashi’s lifeless body was discovered in the water some 300 meters offshore. He was reportedly sporting snorkeling gear at the time. After the Japan Coast Guard made a connection between the body and a white rental car that had been abandoned about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away, Takahashi’s body was recognized as his on Thursday. Takahashi, according to the Coast Guard, went to Okinawa by himself. His body showed no obvious signs of trauma, and an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his passing has now been launched.
The artist’s website was made completely black by Takahashi’s firm Studio Dice. Beginning as a manga artist in the early 1980s, Takahashi—real name Takahashi Kazuo; pen name Kazumasa—failed to find major popularity until the creation of the boy-oriented comic book series “Yu-Gi-Oh!” in 1996. The main character of the series is a young boy who discovers his gaming alter ego after solving an old mystery. The hit TV animation series (anime) and animated movies were both produced from the manga, which was serialized in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
More importantly, it sparked the development of a trading card game in which players compete with one another. The game, which was initially released by Bandai and then Konami with the intention of being a one-off, ended up becoming a worldwide phenomenon with local, national, and international tournaments. The Guinness Book of Records recognized it as the trading card game with the highest global sales. In addition to overseeing the manga, Takahashi also wrote and illustrated other works, such as Comic, a collection to mark the 50th anniversary of the Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018. Takahashi was given the Comic-Con International’s Inkpot Award in 2015, which honors a person for their extraordinary achievements in fandom, science fiction, and fantasy, film, television, and animation.
More than 800 episodes of “Yu-Gi-Oh!” were among the Japanese anime series that FilmRise, a New York-based film and television studio, and streaming network, purchased the North American rights to in April.